Mexico displaced China as the leading exporter to the United States in 2023, the U.S. Census Bureau reported on Wednesday.

Without services, this indicator only considers products.

With a year-on-year growth of 4.6%, foreign merchandise sales from Mexico to its northern neighbor were 475,607 million dollars last year.

In contrast, Chinese exports to the U.S. market fell 20.3% year-on-year to 427.229 billion dollars.

As a result, Mexico became the leading exporter to the United States, ending China’s dominance in this position for 16 consecutive years.

The United States is the world’s largest importer of goods, with a total of 3 trillion 084,092 million dollars in 2022, a decline of 4.9% compared to 2022. 

China had the disadvantage of facing new Covid-19 cases in early 2023 and continues to face tariffs and other restrictions in the U.S. market stemming from the trade war between the two powers.

Meanwhile, in third position, Canadian exports to its southern neighbor were $421,096 million, a decrease of 3.5% compared to 2022.

Leading exporter

Both Mexico and Canada benefit from the free market provided by the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (USMCA), in force since June 2000, replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was, in turn, in force since January 1994.

In addition, Mexico in particular has benefited from nearshoring, attracting foreign investment.

Nearshoring, also known as «nearshoring» or «near relocation,» is a term used in the business context to describe the practice of moving certain operations or business processes to a geographically nearby country rather than opting for locations further away or outside the region.

Going forward, analysts expect Mexico to continue to attract more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 2024, due to relocation, while gaining more market share in total U.S. imports of goods in the same year.

Mexico also achieved to be the first trading partner of the United States in 2023, in the exchange of products.